Cleaning of hair brushes with reducing agents

ABSTRACT

Hairbrushes are cleaned by contacting the hairbrush with a solution of a reducing agent. The brushes are clean as removed from the solution, or a mass of destroyed hair produced by the solution treatment is removed by rinsing.

United States Patent Weiss et al. 1 Sept. 3, 1974 CLEANING OF HAIR BRUSHES WITH 2.352524 6/1944 Evans 8/151 REDUCING AGENTS 2,487,558 11/1949 Kamlet.... 167/89 2,766,760 8/1956 Bogaty.... 1. 132/7 [75] Inventors: Bernard W s, 3 ay Kings 2,174,355 12/1956 Be11 132 Point, N.Y. 11024; Stanley 2,994,330 8/1961 Catlin et al. 134/1 Brechner, Orange; Daniel 2,997,444 8/1961 Martin 252/156 Schoenholz Basking Point both of (30131311111 A NY.

[73] Assignee: said Weiss, by said Brechner and P i E mm r Ban-y S. Richman Said 561108 Assistant ExaminerDale Lovercheck o 20 Attorney, Agent, or FirmRObert P63111113 [21} Appl. No.: 308,101

[57] ABSTRACT [52] US. Cl 134/42, 8/9416, 8/127.51,

132/1631 134/2' 252/157 252/188 Hairbrushes are cleaned by contacting the hairbrush [51] F Cl A45! 24/40 Bosh 3/08 Bosh 3H0 with a solution of a reducing agent. The brushes are [58] meld Search 134/2 42; 8/161 clean as removed from the solution, or a mass of de 8/1275; 424/72; 252/99 157; stroyed hair produced by the solution treatment is re 132/163 moved by rinsing.

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 10 Claims Drawings 2,202,516 5/1940 Calleo 134/200 CLEANING OF HAIR BRUSHES WITH REDUCING AGENTS BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The accumulation of hair on hairbrushes and the like used for conditioning hair, and the difficulty of thereafter cleaning the brushes is a quite common experience in life. The hair and dust and dirt carried along with it when brushing become entangled in the bristles of the brushes as well as finding their way to the internal portions thereof. When one tries to clean the brushes it requires a considerable effort to attempt to individually remove strands of hair and occluded material from their entangled stage within the bristles and brush structure; an effort which is both time consuming and invariably considerably short of complete success in cleaning and removal of hair. Mere conventional soaking in soapy water or the like does not overcome this problem and indeed, may make it more difficult to re move hairs.

The problem is aggravated in the case of professional beautician and barber shops and the like when due to the large number of women and/or men being treated and the necessity of maintaining brushes, combs and the like in sanitary condition, a great deal of effort is expended in cleaning of hairbrushes, etc. While several mechanical brush-cleaning devices have been taught in the prior art, they are relatively complicated, capable of mechanical breakdown and in general are not capable of removing the finer particles and smaller hair strands deeply imbedded in the bristles of brushes as is commonly encountered.

The present invention is concerned with improved means for cleaning hair brushes of matted hair and associated foreign matter in a manner which is capable of being used by the average housewife in her home as well as being of utility to the professional beautician and barbering trades. More particularly, means are taught whereby hairbrushes, particularly those having synthetic bristles such as nylon or other non-protein (plastic) bristles on a plastic base, e.g. typically acrylic, polystyrene, polypropylene and polystyrene/acrylonitrile are cleaned by immersing the brushes in a solution having the properties indicated below.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with the present invention, hairbrushes and similar articles containing hair which are to be cleaned of the hair strands and associated particles are contacted with a solution of reducing agent having the ability to destroy hair particles at concentrations which can be tolerated by the users hands when placing the brush in contact with the solution. The hairbrush is removed therefrom and, depending upon the conditions used, the hairbrush as removed is already clean, or the destroyed hair mass may readily be rinsed off the brush.

In order to be practical for home consumption and use, such as by a housewife preparing a solution of the reducing agent in her bathroom sink or other vessel, the reducing agent must be of a type of sufficient potency to dissolve or break down human hair within a reasonable period of time, e.g., under 24 hours at a concentration level which can both be tolerated by the users skin and not require extremely large quantities of reducing agent. lt should be noted, however, that the user should avoid any excessive contact with the skin,

and follow any such contact by flushing the skin with water.

Typical of reducing agents which can be used for pro viding solutions for the treatment of hairbrushes are the following: the thioglycolates, especially the ammonium, alkali, and alkaline earth thioglycolates; the borohydrides such as the alkaline and alkali earth borohydrides, e.g., potassium and sodium borohydrides, calcium borohydride; sulfides, sulfltes, thioglycerol, imino-amino methane sulfmic acid, thiosulfates, thiolactic acid salts, B-mercapto propionic acid and sulfhydryl compounds generally.

Reducing agents suitable for the practice of the present invention must additionally have the property of being able to destroy hair into a form so that it can be readily removed from the hairbrush bristles without at the same time affecting typical synthetic bristles (nonprotein) which are presently marketed, e.g., nylon bristles, within the time period of contact of the solution with the hairbrush. In order to be of practical value in terms of home use as well as application of beauty parlors, barber shops, etc., the reducing agent must be capable of performing its function in under 24 hours of contact, preferably 0.5 to 12 hours. Additionally, in order to be commercially attractive and capable for home uses the requisite concentrations of reducing agent required for the treating solution should normally be under 10 wt. percent, preferably well under 5 wt. percent, e.g. 0.1 to 5 wt. percent. Higher concentrations are of course possible but less desirable.

Numerous reducing agents fail, however, to meet the above standards. Typical of the latter include many reducing agents used in formulations for the treatment of the hair, such as thiourea and sodium bisulfite.

Typical application of the present invention would have a housewife till a bathroom sink or other container with sufficient water, normally of the order of 1.25 to 2 liters so as to cover the hairbrush or hairbrushes and similar objects, e.g. combs, containing occluded hair and foreign matter to be treated. She would then add an amount of the reducing agent suitable for the practice of the present invention, as indicated on the package containing same which would be adjusted for the amount of solution actually to be used. As noted previously, this normally would be an amount to give a solution of concentration of 2 to 10 percent, preferably under 5 percent by weight. The reducing agents also should be of a type which when added to water preferably maintains its clearness so as to reinforce the cleansing aspect of the present invention. Reducing agents which form deposits on the hair brushes or the like so as to compound the cleaning process are relatively undesirable. Normally, the reducing agent is available in the fonn of a concentrated liquid solution which can be diluted with tap water to give a solution having the requisite concentration to effectively destroy the hair strands without affecting the synthetic bristles. Alternatively, liquid reducing agents which do not represent a substantial hazard in their concentrated form can be marketed with a given number of drops or ounces defined on the bottle for addition to tap water to make up the requisite cleaning solution. The various aspects and modifications of the present invention will be made more clearly apparent by reference to the following description and accompanying examples.

EXAMPLES l to 9 A typical plastic hairbrush comprising nylon bristles on an acrylic plastic base was used for combing hair until a point where it contained a substantial amount of matted hair on its bristles. it was then immersed into several solutions described below (all percentages on a weight basis) to determine the effect of the solution on dissolving hair completely from the brush, or on breaking down the hair in a manner sufficient so that it could be readily removed from the hairbrush after the treatment was completed so as to give a "store bought appearance free of hair and associated foreign matter.

When necessary, the rinsing off of the plastic-like mass of broken down hair particles is readily accomplished by letting water from a faucet run over the hairbrush for a period of to 30 seconds. Of course, longer periods may be used, if desired. Though less desirable, plastic-like mass could be removed by hand. Ex. l Ammonium thioglycolate 2.9 percent at pH 13 dissolves hair overnight yielding a clear yellow solution and a clean brush as directly removed from the solution. Ex. 2 Ammonium thioglycolate 3.6 percent solution at pH 1 1.7 sufficiently destroys hair in 6 hours so that rinsing for 15-30 seconds readily removes hair from the brush. Ex. 3 Ammonium thioglycolate 4.3 percent solution at pH 1 1.4 for 4 hours. Hair was readily removed from the brush by rinsing off broken down hair mass. Ex. 4 Thioglycerol 2.7 percent solution at pH 1 1.2 for 4 hours gave hair in broken down form which was readily removed by rinsing. Ex. 5 Sodium sulfide 4.7 percent solution at pH 12.8 for 5 hours. Broken down hair was removed by rinsing. Ex. 6 Ammonium thioglycolate 3.6 percent at pH 13.0 for 1 hour. The plastic-like mass of broken down hair was readily removed from the brush by rinsing. Ex. 7 Ammonium thioglycolate 4.2 percent at pH 9.5 for 4 hours. Brush cleaned by rinsing. Ex. 8 Ammonium thioglycolate 2.8 percent a pH 9.5 for 6 hours. Hair removal accomplished by rinsing. Ex. 9 Potassium borohydride 2 percent solution pH 1 1.6. Completely disintegrated hair in 7 hours to give clean brush. Shorter period combined with rinsing can be used.

Various modifications can be made to the present invention. For example, the treating solution can be made from a liquid (bottled concentrate), or solid (powder, tablet, etc.) of the reducing agent, the former being preferred for convenience.

Having described the present invention, that which is sought to be protected is set forth in the following claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A process for cleaning a hairbrush or other article used for conditioning hair containing hair matted therein. which comprises:

forming a reservoir solution consisting essentially of a reducing agent in water of volume sufficient to cover at least a major portion of said article,

said reducing agent being readily soluble in water, ca-

pable of breaking down hair without substantially deteriorating a non-protein bristle when in contact therewith for up to 24 hours, and being selected from the group consisting of thioglycolates, borohydrides, sulfides, sulfites, thioglycerol, thiosulfates, thiolactic acid salts, imino-amino methane sulfinic acid, B-mercapto propionic acid and sulfhydryl compounds,

immersing a substantial portion of said hair containing article in said reservoir solution for a period of up to 24 hours,

and thereafter removing said article from said reservoir solution.

2. The process of claim 1 wherein an alkali borohydride is the reducing agent.

3. The process of claim 1 wherein ammonium thioglycolate is the reducing agent.

4. The process of claim 1 wherein a hairbrush of synthetic bristles having hair matted therein is the article treated.

5. The process of claim 4 wherein said solution contains from 0.1 to 10 wt. percent of said reducing agent.

6. The process of claim 4 wherein said solution contains sulficient reducing agent so that substantially all hair is broken down within a period of contact of 0.5 to 12 hours, and further comprises rinsing off a mass of broken down treated hair so as to thereby obtain an article thus cleaned of hair.

7. The process of claim 4 wherein said reducing agent is a thioglycolate.

8. The process of claim 4 wherein said reducing agent is potassium borohydride.

9. The process of claim 4 further comprising removal of a mass of broken down hair after treatment with solution from said brush by running water over said brush for a relatively short time period.

10. The process of claim 4 wherein said reducing agent is a thioglycerol. 

2. The process of claim 1 wherein an alkali borohydride is the reducing agent.
 3. The process of claim 1 wherein ammonium thioglycolate is the reducing agent.
 4. The process of claim 1 wherein a hairbrush of synthetic bristles having hair matted therein is the article treated.
 5. The process of cLaim 4 wherein said solution contains from 0.1 to 10 wt. percent of said reducing agent.
 6. The process of claim 4 wherein said solution contains sufficient reducing agent so that substantially all hair is broken down within a period of contact of 0.5 to 12 hours, and further comprises rinsing off a mass of broken down treated hair so as to thereby obtain an article thus cleaned of hair.
 7. The process of claim 4 wherein said reducing agent is a thioglycolate.
 8. The process of claim 4 wherein said reducing agent is potassium borohydride.
 9. The process of claim 4 further comprising removal of a mass of broken down hair after treatment with solution from said brush by running water over said brush for a relatively short time period.
 10. The process of claim 4 wherein said reducing agent is a thioglycerol. 